13
Our shores give us many Carnivorous Gasteropods, for example, Murex; Fusus, or Spindle shell; Nassa, or Dog-whelk; Purpura, or Purple shell, (some species of which afford a dye); Conus or Cone shell; Voluta; Mitra or Mitre shell; Cypræa, (Cowrie), &c., &c. Livnigstone, in his entertaining travels tells us that the chief Shinte, as a last proof of his friendship came into his tent, which he closed to prevent the possibility of there being any witnesses to his extravagance, and then presented him with the conical end of a Cone shell, adding as he did so, "There now you have a proof of my friendship." So high a price was set on these shells, that five of them would be a handsome sum for an Elephant's tusk worth £10.
In brackish water we may find many of the Seasnails, the pretty little mottled Natica, the long spiral Cerithium, and on the rocks at Lady Bay we have seen specimens of the Siliquaria or Pod shell, which is longitudinally slit all along its twisted spire; the Litorina or Periwinkle, is always found within the action of the tide, as it feeds on sea-weed, and the brackish lagoons afford us the pretty minute Looping snail (Truncatella) in abundance, and it has one recommendation that it can survive for a considerable time in the mud, when the water has been dried up by the Summer's sun.
The richly-colored Pheasant shell (Phasianella) should be sought after eagerly on the Warrnambool and other shores, since it forms so lovely an object for the Cabinet; its generic name has its origin in the resemblance of the markings of the shell to the plumage of the Pheasant (Phasianus): the hoop shells
